Re: VARIETIES OF (civilizational) COLLAPSE: including the U.S.(?) the Earth (?), the Academy (?), and Me (?).

August 6, 2025

You’ve probably heard of Carol Quigley’s perspective on history, one of many to agree that civilizations begin, grow, mature, and collapse, just like people do, just like plants and stars do.

Quigley offered, in The Evolution of Civilizations (1961), seven stages of a civilization’s continuous transformation: mixture (emergence), gestation, expansion, age of conflict, universal empire, decay, and invasion (collapse).

 

Hmmm . . . invasion.

Of “aliens” (i.e. unwanted humans)?

or . . . aliens from beyond?

3I Atlas?

(Twice the size of Mt. Kilmanjaro . . .)  

 

Notice:

 

Pluto cycle 248 years. The Pluto Return for the U.S. occurred a few years ago, when Pluto was in late Capricorn. Now it’s in early Aquarius, and due to dip one more time into Capricorn before taking off at a dead run, or maybe I should say, fissioning into a total Aquarian chaotic evanescence of old traditions, ways of being, views of and ways of interacting with people, with Space, and especially, Time.

(BTW: I hear that today’s Gen Z doesn’t settle down to marriage and family because the sexual (emotional?) choices, as displayed on tic toc etc., are seemingly infinite. Instead, they go from one to another to another . . .)

Time is no longer linear. Actually, it never was. It loops, in various nested, repeating cycles. One can view this looping astrologically or otherwise; the point is the looping. Which is where “karma” comes in. And which is where, over time, in a long life well lived, one can discover/assign more and more meaning to various cycles, patterns that can only be detected in hindsight. Because, meaning, for us, has to do with point where the entire cycle snaps into place, i.e., where the beginning and ending coincide. That’s the aha moment, when suddenly everything begins to make sense. And, if one is familiar with, and actually in love with, the constantly changing landscape of enlarging perspective, sooner or later one begins to recognize that all cycles actually morph into spirals.

We can view our own lives the same way, especially as we age.

Are we spiraling, or are we simply shutting down,

over time,

to the increasingly spacious present moment?

Are you getting older, or are you growing older?

The distinction is important.

 

In my own natal chart, I cannot help but spiral, due, I surmise, to the presence of a very exacting (52°+) septile/tri-septile triangle involving Sun/Jupiter/Uranus which I assume, breaks the circle, since 360° divided by 7 doesn’t yield a whole number.

Notice that URANUS (newly in Gemini, and newly returning for the first and only time to where it was at my birth) is present within this triangle; Notice that the triangle also involves my essence (Sun in Sag) and expansive Jupiter in Cancer (ruler of my Sun). In fact, this mysterious triangle may prove to be the dominant factor in my long life, as I spiral out and out , beyond the beyond . .

Okay, back to earth, Ann.

 

I forced myself to read through a post today that demonstrates in an incredible fashion, just how stupid and vile is woke, DEI, SEL, “identity politics,” and how, for example, it has infiltrated academia to the point where, just as in my own life, or the life of our civilization, this fractal too may be announcing its final collapse. Kudos to both the whistleblower (who remains on the faculty!) and to the meticulous storytelling journalist who, blow by tiny blow, placed the whistleblower’s experience of himself, his faculty, and administration in a psychological/sociological/cultural context. The entire piece very unusual and well worth my usually skittish time.

https://x.com/emmajanepettit/status/1826622852633952340?s=61&t=aUBDiSUrvn0aSlRBtZx0wQ

 

 

As Uranus Return Begins: LIKE TWO SHARP ELECTRIFIED WIRES, FUSED

August 5, 2025

Realization sinking in: my Uranus return, the first and only one in my life (unless I remain in this body until it is still kicking at age 168!) is MOSTLY what my current, and seemingly growing jitteriness, my instant, continuous distraction, my run-away mind is about.

(Oh, and it just happens to be occurring during two other rare and extremely important outer planet transits: the Saturn/Neptune conjunction in Aries exactly upon my root point IC, where it exactly opposes natal Neptune at 2° Libra, and the MC; plus:  transit Pluto in Aquarius nearing opposition to natal Pluto in Leo — both these positions again, for the first and only time in my very long life. 

Uranus, planet of eruptions, volatility, recently moved into airy mental (at least) two-minded Gemini, and is therefore contacting my natal Uranus, at 1°36 Gemini, for the very first and only time.

Like two sharp electrified wires, fused.

No wonder I feel internally “crazy!” Though thoroughly conditioned into Catholicism as a child, in my 20s I broke out of normieland. However, now I’m some kind of outrageous Freak! Thank goodness for “awareness,” — continuous, moment by moment, cultivation of a. doubled consciousness, which I have been practicing forever. Was it Krishnamurti that started me on this path? I have no idea.

Right now such “awareness” is touch-and-go.  I’m learning to be actually grateful for the flea problem, as it forces me to remain grounded into the itty bitty, despite natural tendency to simply lift off and fly through space forever.

I feel for those who must personally interact with me right now on a daily basis.

 

Here’s what we’re up to today: paralyzed and nerve damaged son Colin Cudmore, inventor of the Garden Tower, will be visiting briefly in a few minutes to decide what to keep (very little) and what to let us decide what to do with as he begins the process of moving into his new apartment from the nursing home. (The actual move on August 9th, Saturday, with five big strong male friends helping). I’ve written posts nearly every day on Colin’s Job-like endurance journey, starting back when it first began, on August 16, 2023, almost exactly two years ago (a Mars cycle) —which happened to be the very month when transit Uranus in Taurus hit my natal 23° Taurus Moon, which governs, among other things, children and mothering. Taurus enables grounding for one such as my mostly fiery/airy self.

During these years (seven years altogether) Uranus was in Taurus, extreme turbulence on the material plane. Yes, of Colin’s very body (aortic dissection, from which he was supposed to die), and my continuing emotional reaction and response.

During those two years, and ongoing still, I have written nearly daily posts about his astonishing, inspirational journey; with natal Uranus/Saturn widely conjunct in Gemini and Uranus itself exactly opposed to Mars in Sagittarius, this is the way I tend to heal; by writing down what I’m thinking and feeling.

Today’s Temporary Rollway

Colin Cudmore Healing